This group is made up almost entirely of supernaturals, they believe that humankind has proven to be weak, unreliable, short sighted and stupid and that the world would be a better place if they ran it. To this end the group has many political connections and is a powerful force behind the scenes, manipulating governments and companies using their supernatural gifts to their own ends. They tend to see supernaturals as superior because of their gifts, and wiser because of their longer life spans and thus more suited to rule, while humans are considered a lesser class.
Goals
- Cultivate Assets: Identify and recruit useful humans with positions of influence. Use any means necessary, charm, bribery, blackmail, or supernatural influence.
- Expand Influence: Infiltrate and take control of key institutions, businesses, political offices, media outlets, and social organizations.
- Demonstrate Superiority: Show through word and deed why supernaturals are better suited to rule. Use your abilities openly when it advances Hand interests.
- Train the Inferior: Condition humans and lesser supernaturals to serve Hand interests. Reward loyalty and punish defiance.
- Eliminate Opposition: Identify and neutralize those actively working against Hand interests. Convert, compromise, or remove them as appropriate.
- Secure Resources: Acquire valuable supernatural artifacts, knowledge, territory, and mundane resources that maintain Hand power and prestige.
- Build Networks: Create and maintain networks of influence across all sectors of society. Know who owes you favors and who can be leveraged.
- Advance Meritocracy: Promote systems where the most capable (invariablysupernaturals) rise to positions of authority. Undermine democratic and egalitarian structures.
Roles
The Peacekeepers are the Hand’s soldiers, guards and police. Called upon whenever martial might is required.
The Peacekeepers tend to deploy in modern black military gear and are usually well armored. One of their favorite tactics is to use slightly curved, rectangular shields and deploy into what they call the phalanx. This involves a squad of troops, the first line crouching and planting shields, the second line placing their shields on top and firearms and sometimes the occasional flamethrower being pushed through special slots in the shield to allow the peacekeepers to fire. It presents a front that is effectively immune to small arms fire, but is somewhat slow to move or maneuver and can be vulnerable to flanking attacks. The defense can also be penetrated by heavy weaponry, amongst other societies they are often called ‘turtles’ for their use of this tactic.
The Shadows are the Hand’s covert operatives, responsible for assassinations, espionage, spying, research, R&D and arcane support.
The Shadows tend to deploy in lightly armed and armored black military gear, or enemy/civilian outfits. They are particularly fond of espionage and assassination in open conflict, but also fulfill much of the sniping, scouting or support roles for the Hand. Due to their dark garb and the high number of vampires normally found in them, they are often called ‘Bats’ by other societies.
The Whisperers are the Hand’s public face, they are its diplomats, PR agents, advertising executives, and politicians. Dedicated to influencing the world at large to serve the agenda of the Hand as well as handling relations with other groups. Those groups might be supernaturals ones, or natural ones relating to the Hand through one of their many corporate fronts, the largest and well known of which is Coretech Industries.
History
When the Gods left earth, the resulting power vacuum was filled by their former servants forming independent and competing councils. One of the earliest and strongest of these was known as the Council of Rome. With a leadership made up mostly of vampires they waged war against the Israelites and then the Christians until Christianity was adopted by the Roman State, at which point the group became more covert and started to call themselves Manus, or The Hand.
Through most of the Medieval era The Hand controlled primarily Italy and England as well as some Eastern European states and warred with the Temple and The Order. The industrial revolution began a decline in the power of supernaturals but the Hand was still able to exert significant control over much of the new world including Australia and many of the economic powerhouses of the US.
NPCS
Leadership
Morgan Price
Centuries dissolve into irrelevance when you’ve lived through them. Morgan Price learned this truth in 16th century England, where he traded diplomatic pouches for immortality in an Eastern European castle. He has been instrumental in shaping the Hand’s modern incarnation, transforming it from a loose collection of supernatural entities into a corporate empire with global reach. His centuries of experience have made him a master manipulator who can charm, intimidate, or seduce as needed to achieve his goals. Despite his refined appearance and manners, he is brutally efficient when crossed, personally eliminating threats to the Hand’s operations. He maintains residences in major cities worldwide, each containing art and artifacts he has collected across centuries. Though he views humans primarily as resources, he has developed a genuine appreciation for human creativity and culture, patronizing the arts and preserving historical knowledge that might otherwise be lost. His ultimate vision is a world where supernatural beings rule openly, with humans serving as willing subjects rather than equals, a vision he pursues with patient, meticulous planning spanning decades.
Lilith Zhang
Numbers never lie. People do. Markets do. But numbers? They’re pure truth. This philosophy has guided Lilith Zhang through decades of financial wizardry that borders on the supernatural Rumors about her true nature abound within the Hand. Whatever her origins, she has served as the Hand’s financial mastermind for decades, managing their vast wealth with uncanny precision. Her mathematical abilities border on supernatural, allowing her to predict market movements and identify investment opportunities with near-perfect accuracy. She personally oversees the laundering of supernatural wealth through legitimate businesses, creating an impenetrable financial network that supports the Hand’s operations worldwide. Though she rarely displays emotion, she takes particular pleasure in outmaneuvering human financial systems, viewing it as a game played against inferior opponents. She maintains no known residence, seemingly requiring neither sleep nor personal time, leading to speculation that she may not be corporeal. Her loyalty to the Hand stems not from ideology but from the elegant financial systems she has created within it, systems she protects with ruthless efficiency against both supernatural and human threats.
Dr. Ravinder Singh
Dr. Singh has used himself as the primary test subject for the integration of technology and biology. Originally a brilliant neurosurgeon and biomedical engineer, he became obsessed with human enhancement after losing his family in a car accident that also left him severely injured. His groundbreaking work in neural interfaces attracted the Hand’s attention, who offered him unlimited resources to explore his vision of transcending human limitations. Over decades, he has replaced most of his own body with enhanced prosthetics, extending his lifespan while increasing his physical and cognitive capabilities. Though he maintains the outward appearance of humanity, his thought processes have become increasingly algorithmic, evaluating decisions based on efficiency rather than emotion. The fact that he has no supernatural heritage makes his position on the board controversial to some, but others point to him as evidence of the ways humans can be helpful, for many it being implied that they can be helpful by turning themselves into useful automatons.
Victoria Winters
Three centuries of existence have taught Victoria Winters that respect is earned through fear, and fear through flawless execution. Turned in Victorian England where she was once a nobleman’s daughter, she has spent the past three centuries cultivating power within supernatural circles. Though relatively young by vampire standards, she has risen through the ranks through political acumen and ruthless elimination of rivals, earning both fear and respect. She maintains a network of loyal vampires she has personally turned, placing them in key positions throughout the Hand’s structure to extend her influence. Despite her cold exterior, she harbors deep resentment toward older supernatural entities who still treat her as a newcomer despite her centuries of service, driving her to prove her value through flawless execution of increasingly complex operations.
Ezekiel Cross
Ezekiel operates from the shadows with ancient knowledge and inscrutable motives. Rumored to be one of the original founders of the Hand, his true age and origin remain unknown even to other board members. His magical abilities transcend conventional categorization, drawing from traditions long forgotten by modern practitioners. Though he speaks rarely, his words carry immense weight within the organization, often alluding to historical events he personally witnessed centuries ago. He maintains a network of agents dedicated to tracking and containing ancient threats that periodically awaken across the world, operating independently from the Hand’s regular hierarchy. His patience is legendary, he has orchestrated plans spanning centuries, with some still unfolding toward unknown ends. The few who have worked directly under him describe an uncanny ability to predict seemingly random events. His true goals remain his own, though he appears committed to maintaining supernatural dominance over humanity while preventing certain ancient powers from fully awakening.
New Haven Staff
Vivienne St. Claire
Revolutionary France taught Vivienne that survival meant reading the room. Turned in the late 18th century while working as a courtesan, she has spent centuries perfecting the art of manipulation and information gathering. Though she presents a veneer of polite professionalism, she views humans primarily as resources to be exploited or cattle to be culled when necessary. She maintains a network of informants throughout the city who provide her with gossip and intelligence in exchange for protection or small favors, making her one of the most well-informed individuals in the Hand’s hierarchy despite her seemingly administrative position.
Dr. Eliza Kuan
Most doctors heal. Dr. Kuan improves. Born in the late 17th century in imperial China, she discovered a natural ability with fleshforming after surviving a plague that should have killed her. For centuries, she has refined this ability, learning to reshape bone, muscle, and tissue with the precision of a master sculptor. Recruited by the Hand over a century ago, she now runs the medical division in New Haven, healing injured agents while conducting experiments to enhance supernatural abilities. Though her bedside manner is impeccable, a mask perfected over centuries, she views patients as research opportunities first and individuals second. Despite her cold analytical nature, she harbors genuine curiosity about the potential of various species and takes pride in her “improvements” to those under her care.
Selena Blackwood
Born to a coven of witches who specialized in combat magic, she showed exceptional talent from puberty for imbuing objects with magical properties. When a rival supernatural faction massacred her coven, she survived by activating all her practice weapons simultaneously, creating a magical conflagration that destroyed her attackers. The Hand discovered her living in the ruins. As their New Haven armory manager, she maintains the Hand’s extensive collection of magical items and creates many of their most powerful artifacts. Though outwardly loyal to the Hand, she maintains her own agenda and has been known to create unauthorized items for her personal use. Her confidence borders on arrogance, particularly regarding her magical abilities, but her results speak for themselves.
Balthazar Montgomery
Ethics are for people who can’t handle truth. Born in New Orleans in the early 1900s to a family with connections to both voodoo traditions and European ceremonial magic, he showed remarkable talent for blending disparate magical systems. After studying with various occult masters around the world, he was recruited by the Hand in the 1960s when they discovered him successfully binding entities from other dimensions to his service. As the Hand’s master ritualist, he oversees their magical operations, managing their collection of books and mystical ingredients while personally performing the organization’s most complex rituals. He approaches even the darkest magics with scholarly detachment, viewing ethical concerns as irrelevant to the pursuit of power. Though formally polite, he views most people, even other Hand members, as potential components in his rituals rather than individuals.
Mechanics
If given an award you are counted as having +1 professional focus points.
This group is made up of a blend of supernaturals and naturals who believe that supernatural abilities are a gift that should be used to help others. While their grand aim of helping others is simple in theory, debates on the best way of doing so plague the Order, sowing beliefs that the organisation is an aimless one, with minimal impact on how things actually end up functioning.
Members of the Order however are unified in their desire to help people and make the world a better place. Many of them are true and selfless heroes, although it must be said that glory hounds are often found in their ranks too. Most of the supernaturals in their number are either new to their power or possess incredible mental discipline to resist the slide into corruption.
Goals
- Protect the Innocent: Identify and defend vulnerable populations from supernatural threats. Ward people’s houses or re-house them in safer environments.
- Heal the Wounded: Use supernatural abilities to provide aid and healing to those harmed by supernatural conflicts. Healing physical injuries but especially psychic and psychological ones.
- Bridge Two Worlds: Encourage relationships between humans and supernaturals and work to develop bonds and understanding.
- Contain Corruption: Monitor supernatural individuals for signs of falling to corruption. Intervene to try and support or argue them into trying to halt their decline.
- Educate Responsibly: Teach newly empowered supernaturals ethical use of their abilities. Develop training programs that emphasize restraint and the ability to use supernatural abilities to aid others.
- Preserve Knowledge: Collect and safeguard supernatural lore and artifacts that could benefit humanity. Prevent dangerous knowledge from falling into the wrong hands.
- Reform the Fallen: Offer redemption paths for supernaturals who have strayed and still can be redeemed. Develop rehabilitation programs that channel destructive impulses toward constructive ends.
Roles
Shieldbearers are the largest military group with The Order and are responsible for the protection of others.
The Shieldbearers are tasked with handling all the Order’s defense and siege work. Usually deploying in practical street wear, but with a signature coat or jacket to identify themselves (typically brown). They tend to use heavy armor and favor emplaced heavy weaponry. They tend to prefer to pick areas of high value or impact and then set up defenses and emplaced weaponry in that area to ensure it stays with the Order. They are vulnerable however to being caught while moving locations. They often take round ballistic shields with them into battle, using them to cover each other when needed, or placing them along walls to help fortify an area against weapons fire.
Swordbearers are a smaller group with the Order, dedicated to proactive efforts to deal with threats before the shieldbearers may be needed.
The Swordbearers are the most mobile of the divisions, they tend to favor fairly light armor and weapons such as pistols and submachine guns. Usually deploying in practical street wear, but with a signature coat or jacket to identify themselves (typically brown). They are also the most melee-focused of the divisions and generally try to use their mobility to close and or flank the enemies before tearing into them in close quarters combat. Swordbearers are often called ‘dogs’ by the other factions.
Librarians are the support and investigative arm of the Order, and those who’re less focused on conflict than on research and finding ways to improve the world through the occult.
History
After the Gods and Fae left earth behind, some of their former students and acolytes formed several supernatural councils. A druidic council in the northwest of Europe was initially a small time player in the supernatural world but eventually grew into a powerful player called The Order who saw to the destruction of the Western Roman Empire.
Throughout the medieval period they controlled most of Central Europe. The Industrial revolution led to the decline of the power of the supernatural and after World War Two the Order was left shattered, broken up into a dozen smaller fragments which rose and fell over the following decades. With the Temple and the Hand once more reforming to pursue their agendas and control, the Order has begun to piece itself back together in turn, making ready to safeguard the world and all those who would become collateral in coming conflicts between the world’s other great powers.
NPCS
Leadership
The Order is led by a council of ancient druids known as the circle.
Elaine Ashwood
Time moves differently when you’re becoming a tree. Born in 1823 to a family with ancient druidic connections, she discovered her affinity for plant magic as a child. Her exceptional talents attracted the attention of the Circle, who trained her personally. After centuries of service she has begun the slow transformation into a tree elder, the fate of the most powerful druids. She serves as the primary translator between the increasingly non-human Circle and the Order’s human members, interpreting their sometimes alien perspectives into actionable directives. Despite her immense power over plants and natural forces, she rarely demonstrates it openly, preferring subtle manipulation of existing ecosystems. Her patience is legendary, she has guided operations that took decades to come to fruition. Though she speaks softly, with the measured pace of someone who has seen centuries pass, her words carry immense weight within the Order, and she has personally recruited many of its current leaders.
The Grove
The Grove is the common term for the collection of ancient druids who have transitioned into tree elders. The individual trees are spread all across the world. Some individual members are thousands of years old, with memories stretching back to the founding of the Order. Their perspective is fundamentally non-human, viewing events across centuries rather than moments, and prioritizing ecological balance over individual lives. Communication with the Grove is challenging, they often speak in riddles, natural metaphors, and sometimes share information through dreams or visions that must be interpreted. Their immense power over natural forces is rarely exercised directly but manifests in subtle ways, unusual plant growth, animal behavior, or weather patterns that aid the Order’s goals. The Grove sees patterns in supernatural events globally, guiding the Order’s long-term strategies against threats that may take generations to fully manifest. The location of individual trees of the Grove is one of the circle’s most closly guarded secrets.
Samuel Thornheart
Once a British Special Forces operative, he encountered the supernatural during a mission and was recruited by the Order after displaying natural magical talents. Rising quickly through the ranks, he served as Warden of the city-between for three decades, commanding the Order’s military response to supernatural threats. His ongoing transformation into tree form, which began fifteen years ago, is seen as a mark of favor from the Grove, though it causes him considerable physical discomfort. His magic specializes in combat applications of plant life, creating barriers of thorns, poisonous pollen clouds, or animated vine constructs to entangle enemies. Often at odds with more peaceful factions within the Circle, Thornheart believes direct action is necessary against immediate threats, particularly those stemming from human corruption of natural spaces. He maintains a network of former military personnel within the Order, ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice when diplomacy fails. Despite his gruff exterior, he feels deeply responsible for every agent under his command and personally trains elite Swordbearers.
New Haven Staff
Evelyn Morris
Evelyn bridges the old and new generations of the Order. She joined after discovering her pyromancy abilities in her forties when her husband was attacked by a vampire, her instinctive defense incinerated the attacker but left her widowed and confused about her new powers. The Order found her within days. Twenty years later, she serves as more than just a receptionist; she’s the institutional memory of the local chapter, maintaining meticulous records of supernatural incidents and agent activities. Agents have learned that Evelyn’s “suggestions” often carry the weight of the Circle’s wishes, delivered with a warm smile and a cup of tea.
Sophia Lin
Sophia’s introduction to the supernatural world came during her residency when a patient with inexplicable wounds began transforming into something inhuman on her operating table. She found an innovative cocktail of drugs to delay the transformation and the Order recruited her the next day. Sophia approaches supernatural phenomena with scientific rigor but maintains deep empathy for her patients. She maintains extensive research on supernatural physiologies and treatments, making her one of the Order’s most valuable resources. In her rare free time, she volunteers at city clinics, using subtle applications of supernatural medicine to help those the system has failed.
Grace O‘Brien
Grace was inducted into the world of the supernatural when she lost her military squad to a werewolf attack in the mountains of Afghanistan. She alone survived by using a silver letter opener carried as a good luck charm. The Order found her recuperating in a military hospital and offered her purpose when the military wanted to discharge her. Twenty years later, she runs the armory with military precision, maintaining an extensive collection of weapons both conventional and enchanted. Her knowledge of supernatural vulnerabilities is unparalleled, she can tell you precisely which caliber and metal composition will best affect which type of entity, often from firsthand experience. Beneath her gruff exterior lies a fierce protective instinct toward younger agents.
Ezra Cohen
Formerly a professor of comparative mythology before discovering actual magic in the marginalia of an ancient text, Ezra brings academic rigor to the supernatural. His brilliant mind can make connections between seemingly unrelated occult phenomena. As the custodian of the Order Librarians, Ezra manages their collection of texts, ingredients, and artifacts, developing protective rituals and countermeasures against supernatural threats. Though absent-minded about mundane matters, he frequently forgets meals and loses track of time while researching, his knowledge of the occult is encyclopedic. He maintains close contact with the Circle of Elders, often serving as interpreter of their sometimes cryptic messages. Despite his age, his magical abilities remain formidable, particularly in protective and divinatory arts.
Mechanics
If given an award you can use faction setbonus nature mancing/illusory mancing/Haemomancy/Weather Mancing/Cryomancy, Pyromancy, Necromancy to gain +1 to that ability line.
This group is made of mostly non-supernaturals. They believe that magic and supernatural forces are inherently damaging and should be removed entirely from the world. Most of their members are essentially supernatural hunters or soldiers, religious beliefs are also very common. Some of their members are extremely prejudiced, going so far as to hate all supernaturals, believing they are evil abominations who must all be destroyed. Some however are very compassionate, believing that being supernatural is not that person’s fault, they deserve all the respect and kindness of anyone else, but still thinking that the world would be better served if supernaturals and their influence could be grandfathered out.
Goals
- Gather Intelligence: Monitor supernatural activity in your area. Build networks of informants who can alert you to new threats or supernatural manifestations.
- Arm the Defenders: Train and equip humans to defend themselves against supernatural threats. Form militia groups and teach them effective tactics.
- Limit Supernatural Growth: Prevent the creation of new supernaturals. Convince those with growing powers to take neutralizers or Venetian Oaths limiting their abilities.
- Neutralize Threats: Identify and neutralize dangerous supernaturals. Use appropriate force, containment for minor threats, elimination for major ones.
- Develop Countermeasures: Research and develop new technologies and techniques to counter supernatural abilities. Test and refine them in the field.
- Reclaim Territory: Establish human-controlled safe zones free from supernatural influence. Gradually expand these zones to reclaim more territory.
- Recruit Defectors: Identify and convert supernaturals who are willing to work against their own kind. Use their insider knowledge to further Temple goals.
Roles
The Strike Force is one of the most elite military groups in the world, and they have to be in order to contend with supernatural threats without supernatural powers of their own.
The Strike force prefers ambushes and sniping to open conflict, they are almost always looking to take the high ground and hold their shots for the right opportunity to make the biggest impact, usually targeting officers first. They most often deploy in modern military camouflage. When sniping isn’t a viable option they prefer to set ambushes with land mines or razor wire. They are usually called ‘mosquitos’ by the other factions.
Intelligence are the eyes, ears and brain of the Temple, consisting largely of ex-intelligence agents and military intelligence officers.
Temple Intelligence tend to deploy in slightly modified civilian garb and provide support, scouting, and espionage during times of conflict. They particularly like to sneak in to place remote detonated explosives on key enemy assets, and detonate them right when the enemy most wanted to use them. They have a pronounced rivalry with the Hand’s Shadows. They are usually called ‘geeks’ by the other factions.
Demolishers are known as the Temple’s wrecking ball for when all subtlety has gone out the window. Consisting of most of the Temple’s supernatural members as well as others wielding dangerous experimental weaponry.
The Demolishers usually deploy with the heaviest weaponry and in stripped down military gear, with men often going topless. They aren’t usually that well armored and carry such heavy weaponry as to render their mobility limited. In a direct firefire they rarely lose, but tend to perform poorly in confined areas. Amongst other factions they are generally known as ‘freaks.’
History
The Temple first formed out of Israelite warriors in Canaan around 1400 BCE as a group dedicated to fighting against supernatural evils. While heavily persecuted and seemingly crushed time and time again, they always managed to spring back and reform. They grew in strength as they began to conjoin with the burgeoning religion of Christianity, and finally pushed the Hand back from its seat of power when Christianity was adopted as the state religion of Rome.
The Temple’s influence grew slowly over time, then quickly accelerated with technological and industrial developments, but they were pulled into the great conflict of World War Two and were shattered into countless smaller groups in the aftermath. But recently they have begun to reform once more into a more hegemonic force as their previous scattered resistance tactics were proving less and less effective.
NPCS
Leadership
The Temple is led by a single figure, known as the General.
Alexandra Hayes
Hayes represents the public face of leadership while carefully hiding her true nature and connections. Officially, her background includes service in various intelligence agencies before assuming leadership in the Temple, but this history may be fabricated. She communicates exclusively through secure video calls, issuing directives and managing day-to-day operations with clinical efficiency. Her communications are precise, focused entirely on operational matters with no personal information ever revealed. Some senior Temple members suspect she may be an artificial intelligence or even a supernatural entity serving the Temple’s goals, though such speculation is discouraged. Regardless of her true nature, her strategic acumen is undeniable, under her leadership, the Temple has significantly expanded its operations and effectiveness against supernatural threats. She demands immediate compliance with her directives and has terminated agents who question her authority. The few agents who have worked directly with her report that she possesses extensive knowledge of supernatural threats seemingly beyond what could be learned through normal experience, suggesting she may be far older than she appears.
Commander Isaiah Black
Some scars tell stories. Black’s tell epics. The Commander serves as the right hand of General Hayes though with significant strategic autonomy. His background is classified even within the Temple, but rumors suggest military special forces experience followed by a supernatural encounter that should have killed him. As the General’s direct representative, he transmits important orders personally when they cannot be trusted to electronic communications and coordinates the Temple’s most sensitive operations. He maintains no fixed location, instead traveling constantly between Temple facilities worldwide. His combat skills are legendary within the organization, he has personally eliminated supernatural threats that had destroyed entire tactical teams. Despite his intimidating presence, he evaluates operational plans with cold logic rather than emotion, prioritizing mission success over individual lives, including his own. He bears numerous supernatural-inflicted wounds that would have killed an ordinary human, leading to speculation about enhancements or protections he may have received. The few agents who have worked directly under his command describe him as brutally efficient but fair, willing to sacrifice himself before his team if necessary. His rare smiles are said to be more terrifying than his anger, as they typically precede particularly dangerous operations that he finds satisfying.
New Haven Staff
Sergeant Camila Garcia
As a Marine sergeant deployed in South America, Camila lost her entire squad to what official reports called a “drug cartel ambush” but was actually a vampire nest. Left for dead with a severed artery, she was saved by Temple operatives tracking the same nest. After recovery, she joined their ranks and has spent the past fifteen years hunting supernatural threats with methodical precision. Her extensive experience fighting various supernatural entities has made her an expert in their weaknesses and behavior patterns. She harbors particular hatred for vampires, keeping trophies from significant kills in her quarters.
Dr. James Wilson
Dr. Wilson approaches supernatural phenomena with scientific detachment, formerly a virologist specializing in emerging diseases for the CDC, he encountered the supernatural when investigating an outbreak that turned out to be supernatural. Rather than being horrified, he was intellectually fascinated and eagerly accepted the Temple’s offer to study supernatural “infections.” Though not unkind, he maintains professional distance from his patients, sometimes treating them more as research subjects than people. Despite his clinical approach, he genuinely believes his work serves humanity.
Naomi Chen
Camping trips shouldn’t require flamethrowers. Naomi built one anyway from camp stove parts and hairspray, holding unknowable things at bay until Temple backup arrived. They recruited her between semesters, MIT’s loss becoming humanity’s gain. Naomi leads the Temple’s R&D division in New Haven, designing specialized equipment to detect, contain, and neutralize supernatural threats. Despite her youth, she has earned the respect of the Temple’s veteran members through her practical innovations that have saved countless lives in the field.
Klaus Wagner
Arctic ice preserves things. Klaus left his arm there, torn away by something that officially never existed. Recruited by the Temple during his recovery, he now maintains the New Haven arsenal with stereotypically-German precision. He personally tests all new equipment in the field before approving it for general use, resulting in his collection of scars. Though he rarely speaks of his past, his quarters contain mementos from operations across the globe, including trophies taken from supernatural entities he’s eliminated.
Mechanics
If given an award you can use faction setbonus soldiering/commando/or riot control to get +2 to that ability line.
The Illusium Court is comprised primarily of vampires and faeborn, existing at the intersection of elegance and predation. Their society functions as a kind of perpetual masquerade ball where power and status are as changeable as the seasons. Every equinox and solstice, the Court’s ranks are reset to allow members to start the game of climbing once more. The Court values beauty, intrigue, and the mastery of appearances above all else, seeing reality itself as merely another illusion to be manipulated.
Goals
- Harvest Influence: Identify and cultivate relationships with influential humans in arts, entertainment, politics, and high society. Use these connections to further Court interests.
- Cultivate Mystery: Confuse and misdirect their enemies with myths and rumor.
- Collect Favors: Build a network of individuals who owe you debts, both supernatural and human. These obligations are the Court’s true currency.
- Preserve Bloodlines: Identify those with latent fae ancestry or particularly impressive compatibility with vampiric immortality. Recruit when possible, monitor when necessary.
- Perfect Illusion: Master the arts of glamour, enchantment, and manipulation. Develop new techniques for bending perception and reality.
- Seasonal Ascension: Position yourself advantageously for the next Court reset. Form alliances and accumulate favors to rise in the rankings.
- Expand Territory: Identify venues and locations suitable for Court activities. Gradually acquire these spaces through legitimate or supernatural means.
Roles
Masquerade Hunters are the Court’s enforcers and protectors. These elegant but deadly operatives handle external threats, particularly those who would expose the supernatural world to mundane society. Either being defectors from within the supernatural worlds or those who discover the supernatural outside of the City-Between.
Masquerade Hunters deploy in formal attire modified for combat, often with ornate masks that serve both as disguise and as enchanted protection. They specialize in silent elimination, using a combination of supernatural abilities and traditional weapons concealed as fashion accessories. They excel at infiltration, extraction, and “cleaning” operations that remove evidence of supernatural activity. Other factions often call them “Masks” or “Dolls” for their practiced expressions and controlled movements.
The Revelers are the Court’s intelligence network and social manipulators. They are the ones who move through society, gathering information and exerting subtle influence.
Revelers are masters of disguise and social engineering, trained to blend seamlessly into any social situation from street-level gatherings to elite society functions. They rarely engage in direct combat, preferring to manipulate others into serving as their proxies. Their primary weapons are charm, blackmail, and supernatural glamours. They’re particularly adept at identifying potential recruits with latent supernatural abilities.
The Chamberlains are the Court’s administrators and keepers of tradition. They manage the Court’s resources, organize its seasonal resets, and maintain its complex system of favors and debts.
Chamberlains are rarely seen in the field unless involved in formal diplomatic missions. They track the intricate web of favors, debts, and alliances that make up Court politics, and serve as judges in internal disputes. Their power comes from knowledge rather than physical prowess, though many are ancient vampires or powerful fae capable of devastating magic when threatened.
History
The Illusium Court traces its origins to 16th century Venice, where a coterie of vampires and faeborn formed an alliance during the height of carnival season. Finding that they shared a love for intrigue, artistry, and the mastery of appearances, they established a society that celebrated their supernatural nature while hiding in plain sight among the masquerade balls and theatrical performances of the era.
As European powers colonized the New World, members of the Court followed, establishing chapters in cities across North America. The American Revolution and subsequent democratic movements posed challenges to the Court’s feudal structure, leading to internal conflicts that nearly destroyed the organization in the early 19th century. It was saved by the implementation of the seasonal reset system, which balanced the stability of tradition with the dynamism of regular power shifts.
The Industrial Revolution and subsequent technological developments have been viewed by the Court with both interest and caution. While they embrace new forms of art and entertainment, they remain deeply concerned about technologies that might expose their true nature. The rise of photography, and later video surveillance, has created ongoing challenges for a society that relies on illusion and misdirection.
After World War Two, the Court, like many supernatural organizations, fragmented into smaller groups. These splinter factions often took the form of exclusive nightclubs, theatrical troupes, or social clubs, maintaining aspects of Court tradition while operating independently.
NPCS
Marcel Thornveil
Marcel was once a renowned ballet dancer in 1920s Paris before a vampire attack left him dying on stage. A Court member in the audience was so impressed by his performance that she turned him rather than letting his talents die. His extraordinary balance, precision, and artistic sensibility made him a natural Masquerade Hunter, capable of turning combat into a deadly dance. Despite his refined manner, Marcel harbors a predator’s instincts and can switch from charming conversation to lethal violence in the space between heartbeats.
Dr. Ophelia Clark
A fae-touched human physician from the late 19th century, Ophelia discovered her supernatural heritage when her natural talent for healing manifested during a cholera outbreak. The Court recruited her for her unique ability to understand both human and supernatural physiologies. Over decades of service, she has extended her life through a combination of fae bargains and medical experiments. She approaches medicine as an art form, treating wounds and ailments with theatrical precision while maintaining a bedside manner that alternates between motherly concern and clinical detachment.
Isabelle White
Elias Somervale
One of the oldest members of the Illusium Court, Elias began as a human occultist in 17th century Vienna before attracting the attention of a vampire elder who transformed him to preserve his ritual knowledge. He serves as keeper of the Court’s magical knowledge, maintaining their library of ritual texts and supervising the preparation of major workings. His speciality is liminal magic, spells cast that change a state or play on the border between reealities.
Mechanics
Gain faction influence primarily by contributing to political favor. Can form new relationship types, liege, knight and vassal. Knights take less damage when protecting their liege or others with the same liege. Vassals boost the amount of political control their allies in the same room contribute. Lieges can use the ‘bless’ command once a day to give a life force butt to any vassal or knight of theirs. This shares a cooldown with any daily origin powers.
The Hollow Conclave is an organization comprised primarily of those with demonic ancestry and magic practitioners who have turned to darker paths of power. Drawing on inverted Christian symbolism and demonic practices, the Conclave sees suffering as a path to transcendence and power. Their ranks are structured as a dark mirror of Catholic hierarchy, with advancement dependent on one’s ability to inflict sophisticated suffering on innocents and enjoy the benefits that flow from their demonic patrons for doing so.
The Conclave believes that the world is fundamentally broken, and that conventional morality is a lie designed to keep the masses docile. They see their practices not as evil, but as honest acknowledgment of the world’s true nature. Many members maintain seemingly normal lives as professionals in fields like psychology, art, medicine, or law, using these positions to identify suitable targets for their rituals.
Goals
- Harvest Suffering: Identify and create situations that generate mystical energy through pain and suffering. Refine techniques to maximize energy yield while minimizing exposure.
- Corrupt Institutions: Infiltrate religious, educational, and therapeutic institutions. Use these positions to identify vulnerable individuals and subvert these organizations from within.
- Perfect Rituals: Research and develop more efficient methods of harvesting and utilizing suffering. Document and share results within the Conclave.
- Recruit the Marked: Identify individuals with demonic heritage or aptitude for dark magic. Bring them into the fold through corruption, manipulation, or offering power.
- Collect Artifacts: Acquire items of occult significance, particularly those associated with suffering, demons, or forbidden knowledge.
- Forge Pacts: Establish and maintain relationships with demonic entities. Negotiate for power, knowledge, and protection.
- Transcend Humanity: Work toward personal transformation through dark rituals and demonic pacts. Seek to evolve beyond human limitations.
- Corruption: Corrupt the innocent and make the righteous fall.
Roles
Thornbearers are the Conclave’s warriors and enforcers, serving as both protectors and instruments of punishment.
Thornbearers deploy in subtly modified street clothes with concealed weapons and protective sigils. They specialize in intimidation, abduction, and ritual combat. Their fighting style emphasizes inflicting pain rather than killing outright, as suffering is considered a resource to be harvested. Many Thornbearers augment their combat abilities with dark magic or demonic pacts. They are often assigned to “collect” individuals who have been selected for Conclave rituals or to punish those who have crossed the organization.
Harvesters are the Conclave’s ritual specialists, responsible for extracting and storing the energy generated by suffering.
Beyond practical ritualism, Harvesters are those who experiment with complex rites and strive to develop methods of capturing, containing and utilising the mystical energy generated by pain and suffering. They rarely engage in direct combat, but are often present during confrontations to capture the resulting energies. Their equipment typically includes specialized vessels and implements for their craft, often disguised as ordinary objects. Harvesters can use their ritual magic to enhance or empower other Conclave members in times of need.
Confessors are the Conclave’s intelligence gatherers and manipulators, experts in extracting information and influencing minds.
Confessors combine psychological manipulation with supernatural abilities to extract secrets and bend wills. They often pose as therapists, counselors, or religious figures to gain access to vulnerable individuals. Their methods range from subtle suggestion to total enthrallment, depending on the circumstances. Confessors are particularly valued for their ability to identify individuals with latent supernatural abilities who might be recruited into the Conclave.
History
The Hollow Conclave’s origins can be traced to 13th century Europe during the Albigensian Crusade. A group of Cathar heretics, facing extermination by Catholic forces, turned to demonic entities for protection. The pacts they made transformed them into the first members of what would become the Conclave, their bodies and souls marked by their unholy alliances.
Throughout the late Medieval and Renaissance periods, the Conclave operated as a secret society within the Catholic Church itself, its members hiding among the clergy while practicing their dark rituals in secret. This infiltration reached its peak during the Spanish Inquisition, which some historians believe was partially co-opted by Conclave members to provide cover for their own activities.
The Conclave’s influence waned during the Enlightenment as rational thought challenged religious authority, forcing the organization to adapt. Moving away from its purely religious trappings, it began to incorporate elements of emerging occult traditions, particularly those focused on demonology and blood magic. During this period, the Conclave established a presence in the American colonies, particularly in New England.
The 19th century saw a revival of interest in the occult, providing the Conclave with new recruits and resources. They established chapters in major cities across Europe and America, often disguised as scholarly societies or private clubs. The World Wars of the 20th century provided unprecedented opportunities for the Conclave to harvest suffering on an industrial scale, leading to a dangerous expansion of their power.
Following the fragmentation of supernatural organizations after World War Two, the Conclave broke into smaller cults and covens, each developing their own variations on the original practices.
NPCS
Damien Corvus
Born into money and darkness, Damien inherited both with equal enthusiasm. As receptionist, he serves as the Conclave’s public face, using his natural charm and subtle mind-influencing abilities to identify potential recruits and screen visitors. He takes particular pleasure in corrupting those with strong religious convictions, viewing each small moral compromise he extracts as a personal victory.
Dr. Vincent Morrow
Medical ethics boards called his work “monstrous.” The Conclave called it “promising.” Stripped of his license but not his curiosity, Vincent found an appreciative audience for research that treats pain as data and suffering as currency. As the Conclave’s physician, he monitors the physical health of members while conducting ongoing research into pain, suffering, and their mystical applications. He approaches medicine with cold scientific detachment, viewing bodies, including his own, as merely systems to be optimized and exploited for the generation of mystical energy.
Ezekiel Thorne
A former military engineer discharged after proposing weapons deemed “too inhumane” even for warfare, Ezekiel found his calling with the Conclave, which appreciated his creative approach to suffering. As the Conclave’s engineer, he designs and maintains the mechanical systems used in their rituals and operations. He approaches his work with the methodical precision of an engineer coupled with the artistic sensitivity of a composer.
Helena Wright
Born to high-ranking Conclave members who offered her to a demon as part of a bargain, Helena survived when the entity chose to mark rather than consume her, infusing her with knowledge of forgotten rituals. She serves as keeper of the Conclave’s occult knowledge, maintaining their collection of forbidden texts and ritual implements while researching new methods of harvesting and utilizing suffering. She approaches rituals with the precision of a scientist and the reverence of a high priestess.
Mechanics
Soft restricted to demonborn and primary arcaist focused characters. Gain faction influence from RPing with helpless, not allied people. If they complete a ritual with a helpless person in the room who is at or near full life force the helpless victim will be charged for the ritual instead.
Iron Moon Lodge is an organization comprised primarily of werewolves, shapeshifters, and martial artists united by their dedication to physical prowess and self-mastery. Unlike other supernatural factions that rely on intrigue or magic, the Lodge embraces direct confrontation and personal strength. Their strict hierarchy is maintained through ritual combat, with members advancing in rank by challenging and defeating those above them.
While outsiders might view the Lodge as simply brutal, members adhere to a complex honor code that blends pack dynamics with martial arts philosophy. They value honest strength over deception, loyalty to the pack over individual glory, and controlled aggression over mindless violence. The Iron Moon teaches that the beast within must be acknowledged, respected, and mastered, not suppressed or indulged blindly.
Goals
- Test Strength: Seek out worthy opponents and challenges to test and improve your abilities. Honor is found in the struggle, not just victory.
- Protect Territory: Establish, mark, and defend Lodge territories from intrusion. These spaces provide safe areas for members to train and transform.
- Honor the Moon: Observe lunar cycles and maintain traditional ceremonies that strengthen shapeshifting abilities and pack bonds
- Hunt the Unworthy:Identify supernatural beings who have lost control of their powers or who prey indiscriminately on humans. Challenge and either redeem or eliminate them.
- Master Forms: Develop greater control over your transformations, working toward ideal balance between human intellect and bestial power.
- Train Successors:Identify humans with martial potential or latent shapeshifting bilities. Bring promising candidates into the Lodge.
- Forge Pack Bonds: Strengthen relationships within your pack through shared hunts, challenges, and rituals. The pack survives where the lone wolf falls.
- Advance Rank: Challenge those above you when ready. Victory brings advancement, but challenge without preparation brings dishonor.
Roles
Packrunners are the Lodge’s front-line fighters and scouts, serving as both the eyes and claws of the organization.
Packrunners deploy in light, flexible clothing that accommodates their shapeshifting abilities, often with minimal armor. They excel at speed, tracking, and coordinated pack tactics. Their fighting style emphasizes overwhelming force through coordinated attacks, using their superior physical abilities to outmaneuver enemies. Packrunners typically operate in teams of 3-5, mirroring natural wolf pack hunting groups.
Moon Guardians are the Lodge’s defensive specialists, responsible for protecting territory and enforcing boundaries.
Moon Guardians are typically veteran members who have proven their strength but now focus it on defense rather than conquest. They patrol Lodge territories, mark boundaries with both physical and mystical markers, and intercept intruders. Their fighting style emphasizes endurance and territorial advantage. Many Moon Guardians make use of metashifting or hybrid forms to combine animalistic power and predation while maintaining human intelligence and control.
Iron Masters are the Lodge’s trainers and spiritual leaders, guiding members in mastering both their physical abilities and their inner beasts.
Iron Masters rarely participate in direct conflict unless the Lodge itself is threatened, focusing instead on training younger members and developing new fighting techniques. They also preserve the spiritual traditions of the Lodge, leading moon ceremonies and rites of passage.
History
The Iron Moon Lodge began in feudal Japan, when a clan of werewolves encountered a monastery of martial artists who had developed techniques for channeling and controlling bestial rage. Rather than fighting, the two groups formed an alliance, with the werewolves learning discipline from the monks, and the monks gaining enhanced strength and abilities from experimentations using werewolf blood.
The newly formed Lodge spread throughout Asia, incorporating elements from different martial traditions and shapeshifting lineages. They established a formal ranking system based on ritual combat, ensuring that leadership always belonged to the strongest while the wisdom of elders was still respected through the Iron Master role.
As Western powers expanded into Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Lodge went underground, viewing Western civilization as hostile to their nature-based philosophy. However, some members migrated to America, establishing small, isolated chapters in wilderness areas far from colonial settlements.
The industrial revolution posed significant challenges for the Lodge, as urban expansion encroached on their territories and pollution weakened their connection to the natural world. In response, they adapted their practices, establishing urban chapters disguised as boxing gyms, dojos, and athletic clubs. These provided both cover for their activities and a way to identify humans with potential for martial excellence or latent shapeshifting abilities.
World War II and subsequent conflicts scattered the Lodge, with many members serving in various military forces where their abilities could be used while remaining relatively inconspicuous. Like other supernatural organizations, they fragmented into smaller, independent groups after the war.
NPCS
Kaya Running-Wolf
Born to a long line of skinwalkers, Kaya discovered her shapeshifting abilities during puberty when she transformed into a coyote during a high school track meet, setting a record but raising dangerous questions. The Lodge found her before any authorities could investigate, offering sanctuary and training. As receptionist, she serves as the Lodge’s first line of defense and assessment, using her enhanced senses to detect potential threats or identifying promising recruits. She maintains a territorial awareness of everyone in the Lodge at all times, tracking their movements by scent and sound even while handling administrative duties.
Dr. Lydia Alves
Born to a bloodline of demigod shifters in Brazil, Lydia showed unusual control over her transformations from early puberty and a natural talent for healing. After medical school, she found her way to the Iron Moon Lodge, which offered both acceptance and the opportunity to study shapeshifter biology formally. As the Lodge’s physician, she specializes in the unique medical challenges faced by shapeshifters, from traumatic transformation injuries to silver poisoning to pregnancy complications in mixed species couples.
Fenris Larsen
A second-generation werewolf with Norse ancestry, Fenris grew up learning both traditional blacksmithing and modern weaponry from his father, a WWII veteran who served with the Norwegian resistance. As armory master, he creates and maintains the Lodge’s weapons, specializing in designs that can be wielded effectively even in hybrid forms. Though gruff and demanding, he takes personal interest in matching each Lodge member with weapons that complement their fighting style, believing that the right tool should feel like an extension of oneself.
Raven Cho
Born to a family with both Native American and Korean heritage. As the Lodge’s engineer, she creates and maintains their security systems, training facilities, and specialized equipment.
Mechanics
Soft restricted to werewolves, primary combat focused characters and shapeshifters. Gain faction influence from roughup, contributing items from mist creatures, and winning fights. If there at least two other Lodge PCs in the room with you you gain metashifting.
The Sons of Olympia represent a unique fusion of divine heritage and outlaw culture, formed through the merger of a supernatural motorcycle gang and an ancient mafia family with mythological ties. Their membership consists primarily of demigods and angelborn. They combine the raw power and freedom-seeking ethos of a biker gang with the sophisticated business operations and code of honor found in organized crime.
The Sons operate with a strict hierarchy that draws from both their component organizations, the structure of a crime family paired with the brotherhood of a motorcycle club. Advancement comes through successfully planning and executing heists and raids, with members expected to demonstrate both the raw power of their heritage and the cunning expected of criminal masterminds.
Goals
- Execute Perfect Heists: Plan and carry out operations that showcase both supernatural prowess and criminal expertise. Build reputation through successful, high-profile jobs.
- Expand Territory: Establish and maintain control over geographic areas and business sectors. Push out rivals through intimidation, negotiation, or force.
- Secure Divine Lineages: Identify and recruit those with divine or angelic heritage. Protect bloodlines and ensure they aren’t diluted or exploited by outsiders.
- Collect Tribute: Establish protection arrangements with businesses in your territory. Ensure payments are regular and respect is maintained.
- Recover Artifacts: Locate and secure items of divine origin or significance. These objects of power belong with those of divine blood.
- Build Legitimate Fronts: Establish and grow businesses that can launder money and provide cover for operations. Use these as bases to expand influence.
Roles
Olympian Enforcers are the organization’s front-line operators, responsible for protection, intimidation, and combat operations.
Enforcers typically deploy in high-quality leather motorcycle gear modified for protection and movement, often incorporating subtle armored elements. They excel at high-speed vehicular operations, specializing in convoy attacks, rapid assaults, and dramatic extractions. Their combat style emphasizes overwhelming force and theatrical intimidation, using their supernatural abilities to create shock and awe. Many enforcers channel specific aspects of their divine heritage, descendants of Zeus might manipulate electricity, while those of angelic descent might harness bloodline artifacts to manifest wings during combat.
The Delphians are the organization’s oracles, strategists, and fixers, combining supernatural insight with criminal expertise to plan heists and solve complex problems.
Delphians typically present themselves with a blend of refinement and mystique, wearing tailored clothing with subtle classical Greek motifs or symbols of divination. They specialize in strategic planning, negotiation, and foreseeing complications before they arise. Their methods blend traditional criminal intelligence gathering with divining rituals and attempts to glean prophecies from the dreaming world. Delphians with demigod ancestry often invoke strategy and wisdom, or preternatural cunning from gods like Athena or Apollo, while angelborn Delphians coordinate the Sons’ most ambitious operations and handle delicate negotiations with other factions with their supernatural empathy, as well as helping to create peaceful compromises for the gang’s internal conflicts.
Forge Masters are the organization’s technical experts, combining mechanical genius with divine craftsmanship to maintain and enhance the Sons’ equipment and vehicles.
Forge Masters typically wear practical work clothes with numerous pockets and tool belts, often customized with flame-resistant materials and reinforced with subtle protective elements. They excel at vehicle modification, weapons customization, and creating specialized equipment that blends mortal technology with divine power. Their workshops combine elements of modern garages with ancient forges, filled with both precision tools and mystical implements. Many Forge Masters trace their lineage to gods of craft like Hephaestus, channeling divine inspiration into their technical innovations. Their motorcycles and vehicles are legendary, often incorporating supernatural elements that make them faster, more durable, or capable of impossible feats.
History
The Sons of Olympia’s origins lie in two distinct organizations: the Olympian Brotherhood, a motorcycle club of demigods returning from World War II’s bloodstained fields, and the Angeli Family, a mortal crime syndicate whose roots stretched back to ancient Rome.
The Brotherhood formed in 1947 when demigod veterans, led by Achilles “Road King” Demetriou, a ferocious son of Ares, found civilian life unbearably tame after experiencing the intoxicating rush of combat. These restless souls established a motorcycle club infamous for wild revelry and seemingly impossible feats during races. From their inception, they used angelborn, mostly women, to support them. These “Angels” tended wounds, managed affairs, and frequently ended up the wives or girlfriends of club members.
The Angeli Family operated as a purely mortal criminal organization, though their name would prove ironically prophetic. Under Salvatore “The Hammer” Angeli, they built a sophisticated empire through brutal efficiency and ruthless business acumen. Unlike their eventual rivals, they relied on cunning and violence rather than supernatural gifts.
Their collision was inevitable and catastrophic. When Brotherhood chapters expanded into Las Vegas in 1963, they encroached on established Angeli territory. The resulting turf war painted the desert city crimson. For nearly a decade, the streets witnessed an escalating conflict between demigod strength and mortal determination. The Angelis, despite lacking divine blood, proved formidable opponents through sheer numbers and tactical discipline.
The tide shifted unexpectedly in 1972 when Maria Angeli, Salvatore’s daughter, wandered into Brotherhood territory. Rather than becoming another casualty, she displayed unmistakable angelborn sensitivity, a genetic quirk previously unknown in the family. Road King recognized her nature immediately; instead of ordering her execution, he used her as an unexpected bridge between the warring factions.
Sophia Demetriou, Road King’s angelborn wife, cemented this alliance in 1975 when she masterminded a complex heist after her husband was wounded in a final violent clash with Angeli holdouts. Her natural empathy allowed her to synthesize everyone’s needs at the same time while her years beside Brotherhood operators gave her tactical insights that impressed even veteran criminals. The official merger in 1978 formed the Sons of Olympia, combining demigod strength with angelborn insight and the Angelis’ established criminal infrastructure.
The subsequent decade saw angelborn members rise from supportive positions to operational roles. Though integration continues to this day, tensions simmer beneath the surface. Old-guard demigods sometimes view angelborn members as naturally subservient despite their proven capabilities. Meanwhile angelborn members struggle to use their gifts strategically without being manipulated by their innate desire to please others.
NPCS
Persephone “Percy” Demetriou
Legacy weighs differently when it’s tattooed on your skin. Percy’s ink chronicles the Sons’ history; every heist, every victory, every loss etched in biker ink. Born to founding bloodlines, she breathed crime before air, learned mythology before mathematics. But now comes the question of how could anyone possibly live up to the weight of all that legacy? As the organization’s receptionist, she serves as both gatekeeper and intelligence hub.
Jacob Walker
A third-generation demigod descended from Ares, Jacob embraced his martial heritage from childhood, excelling in combat sports before finding his true calling with the Sons. His divine heritage manifests in combat intuition and berserker strength that activates in the heat of battle, allowing him to deliver blows that would shatter normal weapons. Despite his intimidating presence and capacity for violence, he maintains a strict code of honor, fighting only worthy opponents, protecting those under his care, and showing respect to fallen enemies.
Hector Rivera
With a natural gift for engineering and incredible heat tolerance, Hector is a natural smith. The Sons found him creating custom motorcycles in a small garage, recognizing his divine craftsmanship even in mundane works. As armory master, he creates and maintains the organization’s weapons and vehicles, infusing them with aspects of his divine heritage.
Dade Mitchell
An Angelborn whose inventions in college caused him to be forced into indentured servitude to a gang of demonborn before they were all slain in a turf war with the Sons who offered him more gainful employment. As the organization’s engineer, he creatres tools and weapons custom designed for each job or heist.
Mechanics
Soft restricted to angelborn and demigods. Gain faction influence from roughup, running schema planning and attending raids in the city. Get free motorcycles and some cash from contributing the reward from a raid.
The Last Vigil is an organization of humans dedicated to monitoring, containing, and when necessary eliminating supernatural threats. Drawing inspiration from historical witch hunters and inquisitions while incorporating modern technology and methodology, they see themselves as the thin line protecting ordinary humans from the dangers of magic and supernatural beings. Members advance in rank primarily through the capture and successful interrogation of supernaturals, with magic users being particularly valued targets.
While outsiders often view them as fanatical, the Vigil maintains that its actions are necessary and justified. Their philosophy holds that supernatural powers corrupt their users over time, making all magic practitioners eventual threats regardless of initial intentions. This belief drives their relentless pursuit of those they deem “contaminated by the unnatural.” Despite their zealotry, they operate with methodical precision, documenting their findings extensively and developing increasingly sophisticated anti-magical technologies.
Goals
- Extract Truth from Darkness: The supernatural conceals its true nature behind layers of deception and misdirection. Through rigorous interrogation of captured entities, uncover the hidden truths they guard.
- Control What Cannot Be Destroyed: Some supernatural entities possess knowledge or abilities too valuable to eliminate. Through careful conditioning and binding protocols, these creatures can be broken into service of a higher good.
- Purge Wickedness: When wickedness and supernatural sympathies find a hold in the heart of man, they must be purged.
- Destroy Artifacts: Locate and neutralize objects of supernatural power. If they cannot be safely neutralized, secure them in Vigil vaults.
- Purify Contaminated Areas: Identify locations where supernatural energies have accumulated. Cleanse these areas using appropriate methods.
- Purge Doubt: Doubt undermines purpose and makes operatives vulnerable to supernatural influence. Maintain unwavering conviction in the righteousness of our cause through education, reinforcement, and when necessary, removal of compromised individuals.
- Know Thy Enemy better than it knows itself: Systematic study of supernatural entities provides critical intelligence on weaknesses, capabilities, and potential countermeasures. Through controlled experimentation, we develop the tools to defeat what we cannot yet destroy.
- Chronicle the darkness: Comprehensive documentation of supernatural entities, capabilities, and physical and psychological weaknesses creates an armory of knowledge for future generations of Vigilants. Our chronicles are humanity’s survival manual.
- Find the Worthy: Our mission requires individuals of exceptional conviction, courage, and discretion. Identify those who have glimpsed the supernatural and remained unbroken, offering them purpose in the defense of humanity.
Roles
Vigilant Inquisitors are the organization’s field agents, responsible for investigating, capturing, and interrogating supernatural entities.
Inquisitors typically deploy in plain clothes with concealed weapons and detection equipment, sometimes posing as law enforcement or government agents. They excel at investigation and ambush tactics, specializing in neutralizing supernatural abilities through technological and home-brewed medical means. Their approach emphasizes careful preparation and the exploitation of specific weaknesses, compensating for their human limitations when facing supernatural threats. Most Inquisitors work in pairs or small teams for mutual protection.
Vigil Curators are the organization’s researchers and technical specialists, developing and maintaining the technologies that allow the Vigil to combat supernatural threats.
Curators typically work from secure facilities, wearing lab coats or technical uniforms emblazoned with the Vigil’s symbol. They specialize in analyzing supernatural samples, reverse-engineering magical artifacts, and developing countermeasures for specific supernatural abilities. Their work combines elements of advanced science with recovered alchemical and occult knowledge, creating technologies that exist in the gap between conventional science and the supernatural. Most Curators have academic backgrounds in fields like chemistry, physics, or medicine, but have developed specialized knowledge outside conventional scientific paradigms.
Shepherds are responsible for handling the Vigil’s less willing members, responsible for ‘training’ witches and other supernatural into obedient confederates to be used against others of their own kind. They also are responsible for handling these assets in the field and ensuring they do as required.
While some Shepherds treat their charges with compassion there are many who do not, with rumors of people kept in deprivation, forced to train and work themselves almost to death and even subject to breeding programs to produce the next, even more obedient, generation.
Purifiers are the Vigil’s heavy assault specialists, deployed when supernatural threats must be eliminated rather than captured.
Purifiers deploy in tactical gear reminiscent of SWAT teams but modified with magic-resistant materials and specialized weapons. Often making use of Vigil’s enslaved magic practitioners to provide them with protective charms and wardings. They excel at coordinated assaults on supernatural targets, particularly those in fixed locations like covens or nests. Their equipment includes modified firearms loaded with specialized ammunition, flamethrowers, and various technological devices designed to disrupt or nullify supernatural abilities. Purifiers operate with military precision and overwhelming force, compensating for their human nature through superior tactics and equipment.
History
The Last Vigil’s origins can be traced to late 19th century Europe, specifically to a secret society within the Catholic Church that broke away during the rise of the Hollow Conclave’s practice of demonology and occultism, coinciding with the Vatican’s modernization efforts. This group, known then as the Eternal Flame, believed that the Church was abandoning its sacred duty to combat supernatural evil in favor of scientific rationalism.
Led by Father Ignatius Kane, a priest with extensive experience in exorcisms and occult investigations, the Eternal Flame recruited from both religious and scientific circles. Kane believed that modern science could be combined with traditional methods of combating the supernatural, creating a new approach that would be more effective than either tradition or science alone.
The organization gained significant momentum following World War I, as the global conflict and subsequent Spanish Flu pandemic created conditions that fueled supernatural activity. Kane and his followers saw these events as signs of increasing supernatural influence in world affairs, reinforcing their belief in the necessity of their mission.
By the 1920s, the group had established cells throughout Europe and North America, operating under various cover identities including academic research groups, private investigation firms, and religious retreats. They began systematically documenting supernatural phenomena and developing early versions of the technologies they still use today.
The outbreak of World War II presented both challenges and opportunities for the organization. Nazi Germany’s interest in the occult created a surge in dangerous supernatural activities, but also provided the group with access to recovered occult artifacts and research. Following the war, the organization formally reorganized as The Last Vigil, reflecting their belief that they stood as humanity’s final defense against supernatural dominance.
The Cold War era saw the Vigil adopt more sophisticated operational security and intelligence gathering methods, influenced by the espionage techniques of the period. They established relationships with elements within various government agencies, creating a network of informants who would alert them to potential supernatural threats.
NPCS
Margaret Sterling
A former military intelligence officer who encountered the supernatural during a classified operation in Eastern Europe, Margaret joined the Vigil after conventional authorities refused to acknowledge what she had witnessed. As the organization’s receptionist, she serves as both gatekeeper and first line of defense, using her intelligence training to evaluate visitors and identify potential threats. She maintains meticulous records of all Vigil operations, creating an invaluable institutional memory that has preserved knowledge that might otherwise have been lost between generations of hunters.
Dr. Eleanor Reid
A brilliant trauma surgeon whose family was killed by a shapeshifter, Eleanor joined the Vigil after hunting down and killing the creature herself using medical knowledge to identify its weaknesses. As the organization’s physician, she treats injuries inflicted by supernatural entities while researching their biology and developing more effective countermeasures.
Samuel Phillips
A third-generation Vigil member who grew up learning to craft weapons against the supernatural from his father and grandfather, Samuel combines traditional monster-hunting knowledge with modern weapons technology. As armory master, he creates and maintains the specialized weapons used by Vigil operatives. Though traditional in many ways, he embraces useful innovations, constantly testing new materials and designs to improve the Vigil’s arsenal.
Victor Crane
A brilliant engineer with a history of being dismissed from research positions for “ethical concerns,” Victor found his true calling with the Vigil, which appreciates his willingness to cross boundaries in the name of efficacy. He designs and maintains the technical systems used to detect, track, and contain supernatural entities, bringing a disturbing creativity to his work. His capture devices are intentionally painful, his containment systems psychologically torturous, and his testing protocols unnecessarily cruel, all justified as “necessary data collection” or “deterrence enhancement.”
Mechanics
Soft restricted to non supernatural characters. Gain faction influence from tormenting helpless supernatural victims including allies. If in the same room as someone you’re phone tracing, your hacking is 5, if within 2 rooms of them it’s 3. Supernatural members cannot quit the society. Can use control forcefollow to make soft restricted members to follow you, or control efence to make it impossible for them to leave the property of the room they are currently in.